POWERSHIP

A powership (or power ship) is a special purpose ship, on which a power plant is installed to serve

as a power generation resource.
Converted from existing ships, powerships are self-propelled, ready to go infrastructure
for developing countries that plug into national grids where required.[1] Unmotorised powerships,
known as power barges, are power plants installed on a deck barge. These are sometimes called
"floating power plants" or "barge mounted power plants". They were initially developed during World
War II by General Electric for the War Production Board as a transportable large-scale power
generation resource.
Powerships or power barges can be equipped with single or multiple gas turbines,
reciprocating diesel and gas engines, boilers or nuclear reactors for electricity generation. Bureau
Veritas, an international certification agency with experience in overseeing both shipbuilding and
power plant development, classifies such floating power plants as "special service power plants"
One of the earliest powerships was the SS Jacona, built in 1931 by the Newport News Shipbuilding
and Drydock Company of Virginia for the New England Public Service Company of Augusta, Maine.
The idea came to the president of the Augusta firm, when one winter a severe winter storm took out
a lot of the New England major power transmission lines. The role of the Jacona would be to dock as
near as possible to the affected area and hook into the local power grid, restoring power. During the
summer months the Jacona would hook into vacation area power grids where power needs are
extremely low during off season and extremely high during the summer vacation season. The
Jacona was fitted with steam boilers which drove two generators which could produce 10 MW each.
[2]

At one time the US Navy used its submarines when disaster hit a local community that brought down
the commercial power grid, which led to the idea of powerships for the US Navy, and an early US
Navy powership was the USS Saranac, a former US Navy naval ship. Saranac was a 1942 built fleet
oiler before her conversion into a powership following the Second World War to serve in the US
Navy and Army. In 1957, she was sold to Hugo Neu Corporation of New York City and was used
then as a power facility abroad by the International Steel and Metal Corporation. In 1959, she was
renamed Somerset.[3]
The first floating nuclear reactor ship was the MH-1A, used in the Panama canal zone from 1968 to
1975.[citation needed] This ship (named Sturgis) was decommissioned and scrapped over the period of 2015
to 2019.[4]
Power barges and powerships offer a number of advantages over other forms of power plant. Due to
their mobility, powerships can be connected to local power grids to temporarily cover demands
whenever on site power plants are insufficient or the building of new power plants will take time,
[5]
 while dual-fuel engines on board can be powered by either liquid fuels or gas. The power barge
and powership are able to use any infrastructure available at the site on which she is required.